VERY SCARCE PCGS AU53 1863-S $10

The mintage for this date is 10,000, which is the second lowest of all the Civil War San Francisco eagles after the very rare 1864-S, of which just 2,500 were made. I view the 1863-S as a “sleeper” issue which has around 10-12 known in all AU grades and two in Uncirculated; one each in MS60 and MS61.

This is a solid coin for the grade which I feel is accurately graded and very close to CAC quality. The color is a light to medium green-gold and there is a good amount of luster remaining on both sides. As with virtually every 1863-S $10 that I’ve seen, this coin shows some marks in the fields. Unlike on most examples, these marks aren’t deep or detracting. A scrape to the right of the date is fairly fresh but it is hard to see with the naked eye.

There are just three APRs for the 1863-S $10 in PCGS AU53 since 2004, and this coin (see below) represents one of these. A nice PCGS/CAC AU53 sold for $30,000 in December 2021, while a marginal example brought a strong $32,900 back in February, 2014. In fact, the only finer PCGS graded 1863-S to sell at auction was the nice PCGS MS60 coin from the Admiral Collection, which set a price record for the issue at $132,000 when it was offered as Heritage 2/2028: 4262.

If you are a serious collector of Civil War gold coinage or if you specialize in rare San Francisco gold, you are not likely to find a finer 1863-S eagle than this.

From the Reed Collection, ex Greenspring Collection, Legend 12/2020:18 ($23,500), Monte Weiner “Big Mo” Collection.

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